Saturday, November 21, 2015

A Night Out in Nashville

Well, I never found the post I lost. That is seriously one of life's great mysteries. So, I'll try to recreate it as best I can.

So, earlier this year when I wrote this post, I mentioned it was the last concert of 2015, but apparently I was a liar because as luck would have it, the concert gods had one more show in store for me. the Sunday after the Foo Fighters show, I was having dinner with my cousins and some friends of ours (Russell and Cindy) were over as well. Lauren and I were telling Russell about our Foo Fighter's experience and somehow it triggered him to tell us all about Tab Benoit and what a great show he puts on. Tab is from Louisiana and sings a Cajun/Zydeco type of music and Russell was pretty fired up when he was talking about the show he had been to. The next thing I knew, Russell was looking up the dates for upcoming shows and then we were all buying tickets.

The show was last Tuesday and there ended up being 13 of us who went up to see it. The show was held at City Winery in downtown Nashville which is a very nice venue. I had never heard of it before buying my ticket to the show and was very impressed with the place. I rode up with my cousins Jan, Benny, Anna and Randy and because of rush hour and a couple of accidents, we arrived a little after 6:30. The seats are such that you are actually seated at a table and you can dine before the show, which is why we arrived early. I think everyone was happy with the meals they ordered. I had the steak which came with a cauliflower and mushroom puree and asparagus, all of which was delicious.

The opening act, who's name I cannot remember to save my life, came on stage about 7:30 and played for 45 minutes or so. He was actually quite good and I enjoyed listening to him. Tab took the stage around 9:00 p.m. and seriously, the folks in the crowd went a little nuts. It was rather humorous. Tab can play the guitar like nobody's business and doesn't have a bad voice to boot. That particular night was hi birthday and I'm here to tell you the man was three sheets to the wind (or drunk for those of you who are not familiar with the expression). He ended up doing a whole lot more talking than singing and playing which basically amounted to us getting a stand-up show in conjunction with the concert. I couldn't tell you the last time I laughed that hard. I don't know if he always talks that much, but he sure talked that night and it was hilarious.

The stand-up show/concert ended around 11:00 p.m. at which point we discovered that one of the couples who came with us paid for everyone's meals, which was an incredibly nice gesture and took everyone by surprise. We collected the truck from valet parking and then headed back south. Most of us stayed awake for about 45 minutes of the drive before nodding off to sleep. Big thanks to my cousin Benny for driving all us sleepyheads home through the night. It was a very fun night and a great way to end the 2015 concert season!